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Topic: How to transfer split into a TBH (Read 2268 times)

I have a friend who just built a TBH and I promised to help him start beekeeping. He cannot afford a package and so I was hoping to catch a swarm for him, but I was thinking that perhaps I could split a hive for him. Only thing how to do that??? How to transfer the split that would be all medium regular frames into a TBH??

If the top bar hive is built to the dimensions of a long medium (as several of mine are) then you just put a couple of frames of brood and a couple of frames of honey/pollen in and you''re done. :) Otherwise, you need to make some kind of frame and do a cutout.

If the top bar hive is built to the dimensions of a long medium (as several of mine are) then you just put a couple of frames of brood and a couple of frames of honey/pollen in and you''re done. :) Otherwise, you need to make some kind of frame and do a cutout.

You could put some frame top bars in one of your hives. Then if his bars are shorter you could cut them off once they are drawn, or if they are longer you could just tie your bars onto his bars. If you have to cut them it would probably be helpful to score them before they get drawn, but you could nip them right off with a set of long handled pruning loppers.

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Samuel Clemens

Sam Comfort makes his top bar hives wide enough to accommodate frames from Langstroth hives. When he transfers into a top bar, he nails the top of the frame bar from the Langstroth under the top bar. He takes a sharp knife and cuts the Langstroth comb angularly to fit the top bar hive.

I suppose you could also saw the top of the Langstroth, but how would you do that with bees on the frame?

Linda T in Atlanta

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http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

Well very good ideas and I actually saw a video on a website where they took the frames out of the Lang hive and cut the frames to fit into the TBH. They snapped off all three sides of the frames and then cut the wax comb in the shape of the TBH.

As it turns out, I will not have to worry about this, as my friend decided to just order a package of bees.

Thanks for all the wonderful idea. Another friend of mine offered to build me a TBH, so it looks like I will be going in that direction as well. I will start it if I catch a swarm this year, otherwise I may wait until next year.

I spent the afternoon building a TBH with my son-in-law and his father - we had such fun and it was a lot of work. We cut kerfs in the top bars to glue in popsicle sticks - that was the most challenging part. I didn't do the heavy/dangerous parts with the table saw, but spent a lot of time sawing the top bars. I tried the circular saw, but my hand wasn't big enough to push the button and the switch at the same time....not an easy saw to use. Maybe there are other brands for smaller hands. This one belongs to my son-in-law. So I did it the old fashioned way with a hand saw and a miter saw box.

All in all the fun was well worth the work of it. The hive is going in my daughter and son-in-law's backyard so he was even more excited about getting it made.

Linda T in Atlanta

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http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

OH that is wonderful Linda that the hive will be at your daughter's house and they can enjoy the bees as well. I wish you so much luck and fun with this new way of beekeeping. I am planning on reading everything you write on your blog about this TBH so I can learn from you.